Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to sensing environmental conditions and communicating sensed information in order to inform users as to conditions that exist that may affect items that are in the area of the sensor.
Producers, distributors, warehousers, and quality personnel, among others, especially those in charge of perishable, spoilable, or high-value items that are, for example, moving through a logistics supply chain, may desire to know the condition of items for which their operation is accountable. Also, the customer perception of quality may be of value in some industries and, therefore, the monitoring of products through the supply chain may be used to indicate such quality to a customer base.
Further, some entities may be interested in lowering insurance premium costs and the monitoring of products through the supply chain may be one way to reduce such costs. Monitoring the environment of products as they travel is a way of gaining such efficiencies, increasing traceability, and/or of providing for the quality and safety of products which can influence one or more of the above factors, among other benefits.
A number of environmental sensing assemblies have been taught, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,057,495 “Perishable Product Electronic Label Including Time and Temperature Measurement” and U.S. Pat. No. 7,248,147 “Perishable Product Electronic Label Including Time and Temperature Measurement”, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/712,075 “Environmental Sensing”, all of which are commonly assigned and have at least one common inventor with the present application. One or more embodiments of the present disclosure may improve upon these and other devices, systems, and methods for environmental sensing and communication, in some instances.